Jazeera newsman killed in clashes in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-05-21 13:40

Arab news channel al-Jazeera said on Friday one of its employees was killed overnight in clashes between U.S. forces and militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

It said Rashid Hamid Wali was killed in fighting in the southern city of Kerbala where U.S. forces are battling to put down a weeks-old rebellion by Sadr's militia.

"Our colleague Rashid Hamid Wali was martyred while the team of al-Jazeera was filming the clashes between U.S. forces and the Mahdi Army in the Bab Baghdad area in Kerbala last night," the channel announced.

It said Wali was on the fourth floor of his hotel when bullets, fired at the hotel where they worked, killed him. It did not say if Wali was a cameraman or correspondent.

The Arab channel, which has angered Washington for its graphic coverage of the Iraq war and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, lost one of its correspondents, Tareq Ayoub, on April 8 when U.S. forces fired at Jazeera offices in Baghdad as Ayoub was getting ready to go on air.

More than 25 newsmen were killed during and after the U.S.-led war on Iraq which began on March 2003.